Thread by @cppinvest

Covid isolation is negatively impacting the elderly.

Been visiting my 85 y.o. father-in-law this week. A month ago he fell and broke his hip, had surgery the week before Thanksgiving. Was ornery post-surgery and making slow progress on recovery. His only contact has been with

my mother-in-law and the in-home nurse/aide. He's been sleeping in a hospital bed downstairs in what used to be the living room. He was spending too much time in the bed and in his wheelchair and grouchy. He wants to be in FL and is mad that he isn't. He's mad that he fell.

All perfectly normal and understandable. We show up two days ago, one week after he got home from the hospital. At first he was listless and uncomfortable we were there. We moved the furniture around that was piled up to make room for the bed and other medical equipment.

Basically returned his den to close to normal historic conditions: TV back in place, sitting areas for people to hang out and live. Picked him right up. Two hours after, he was standing himself up without the aide's help, and pushing his walker faster than Carl Lewis.

We go back to hotel for the evening. Got there yesterday morning late and mother-in-law says for the first time since he's been home he walked himself to the kitchen table for breakfast and was doing exercises aggressively. Chatty. Like he used to be.

He wanted to see us. That's it. It changed his disposition and attitude. We wore masks the whole time even though we had ourselves tested three days prior and lived in isolation for the three days before our departure. No contact with others.

Point being we didn't need some idiot governor telling us what to do. Or the mask police. This was our plan executed our way. Had we lived in a normal state with a real governor, like FL, we would have done the same thing. Most COVID transmissions are inter-familial.

And so would most of you. Why don't you let us manage our own lockdowns, huh gov? Stop with the stupid capacity restrictions of restaurants and 10 pm curfews. Let each of decide how we want to live, and who we want to see, when we want, not you. People need human contact.